Social  Service  Series 


The  Churches  Outside 

The  Church  Cpleman 


The  Interest  of  Each 
Is  the  Concern  of  AH 


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1701-1703  CHESTNUT  STREET 
PHILADELPHIA 


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The  Churches  Outside 
The  Church 


George  W.  Coleman 

Chairman  Committee  of  Christian  Work 
Boston  Baptist  Social  Union 


Published  for  the  Social  Service  Commission  of  the 
Northern  Baptist  Convention 

SHAILER  MATHEWS 

Dean  of  the  Divinity  School,  University  of  Chicago 
Chairman  of  the  Editorial  Committee 


American  Baptist  Publication  Society 

Philadelphia 


Boston 


St.  Louis 


Chicago 


Copyright  1910  by 
A.  J.  ROWLAND,  Secretary 


Published  March,  1910 


THE  CHURCHES  OUTSIDE  THE 

CHURCH 


Though  unconventional,  deeply  religious. 

Accurately  speaking,  I  suppose  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  church  outside  the  churches — the  phrase 
is  anomalous.  The  moment  you  form  a  new  group 
exercising  functions  more  or  less  churchly,  you 
simply  have  another  church. 

It  is  true,  nevertheless,  that  there  has  developed 
in  this  country  recently  a  variety  of  Sunday  after¬ 
noon  and  evening  meetings,  which,  while  entirely 
outside  the  churches,  are  characterized  by  a  deeply, 
though  not  conventionally,  religious  spirit. 

It  is  quite  obvious  to  any  fair-minded  man  who 
looks  upon  the  restless  life  of  our  cities  that  there 
are  a  great  many  people  whom  one  might  naturally 
expect  to  find  identified  with  some  church  interest 
who  are  entirely  estranged  from,  or  indifferent  to, 
any  church.  And  yet  they  are  men  and  women  of 
character  and  intelligence,  doing  their  work  in  the 
world,  frequently  ardent  laborers  for  a  better  day 
of  one  sort  or  another,  and  ready  to  respond  to  an 
appeal  to  their  moral  and  spiritual  natures  when 

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that  appeal  is  stripped  of  the  forms  and  usages 
upon  which  they  have  turned  their  backs. 

Widespread  spiritual  and  social  unrest. 

It  is  equally  plain  that  there  is  a  great  spiritual 
and  social  unrest  among  the  masses,  a  thirsting  and 
a  hungering  after  that  which  satisfies,  together  with 
a  confirmed  unwillingness  to  seek  that  satisfaction 
in  the  regular  places  of  worship.  At  the  same 
time,  in  many  of  our  churches,  interest  in  the 
Sunday  evening  service  has  been  steadily  declin¬ 
ing,  a  fact  which  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the 
source  of  supply  is  not  being  brought  into  a  suffi¬ 
ciently  vital  contact  with  the  great  need  of  the 
community. 

The  purpose  of  this  pamphlet  is  to  tell  of  some  of 
the  successful  attempts  that  have  been  made  in  this 
country,  outside  of  the  regular  channels  of  church 
organization,  to  bring  social,  moral,  and  spiritual 
uplift  to  those  who  find  it  inconvenient  or  difficult, 
or  who  are  unwilling,  to  attend  the  stated  services 
of  the  church  or  synagogue.  I  say  synagogue  as 
well  as  church,  for  it  has  been  claimed  that  eighty 
per  cent,  of  the  young  Jews  coming  to  this  country 
very  soon  cast  ofif  all  allegiance  to  the  synagogue. 
And  it  is  asserted  that  the  Catholic  Church  also  is 
distressed  over  the  problem  of  how  to  hold  the 
allegiance  and  active  interest  of  the  men  of  its  par¬ 
ishes.  Some  of  these  interesting  Sunday  audiences 
outside  of  the  direct  life  of  the  churches,  and  yet 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church 


5 


growing  more  or  less  directly  out  of  them,  appeal 
alike,  and  with  the  same  success,  to  Protestant, 
Catholic,  and  Jew. 

Some  extra-church  gatherings. 

The  widespread  character  of  this  spiritual  dis¬ 
content,  together  with  the  general  insufficiency  of 
the  regularly  established  means  to  reach  it,  is  to¬ 
kened  by  the  fact  that  these  extra-church,  or  uncon¬ 
ventional  religious  gatherings  have  sprung  up  spon¬ 
taneously,  many  of  them  within  two  or  three  years, 
in  various  parts  of  the  country  as  widely  separated 
from  each  other  as  Portland,  Ore.,  Seattle,  Wash., 
and  New  York  and  Boston,  with  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
Rochester,  New  York,  and  other  cities  coming  in 
between. 

In  many  particulars  no  two  of  these  rather  un¬ 
usual  gatherings  are  alike,  though  they  are  all  set 
to  minister  to  the  people  who  do  not  customarily  go 
to  church.  Almost  without  exception  they  have 
been  markedly  successful  from  the  start  in  attract¬ 
ing  the  very  people  for  whom  they  were  intended 
— crowded  houses,  and  with  hundreds  turned  away, 
being  the  normal  experience.  They  have  also  been 
successful  in  avoiding  competition  with  any  exist¬ 
ing  church  services,  and  in  more  than  one  com¬ 
munity  they  have  opened  the  eyes  of  church  people 
to  better  ways  of  conducting  an  evening  service. 
And,  inasmuch  as  the  social  gospel  is  a  prominent 
feature  in  all  of  these  people’s  gatherings,  the 


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church  itself  has  felt  the  quickening  of  the  reaction 
in  a  very  definite  way. 

Their  springs  in  the  church,  nevertheless. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  this  new  movement 
seems  to  have  planted  itself  entirely  outside  of 
church  walls,  it  is  most  interesting  and  inspiring  to 
note  that  in  each  case,  in  so  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  trace  it,  all  of  the  four  principal  gatherings 
which  I  shall  attempt  to  describe  very  briefly  owe 
their  inception,  their  continued  direction,  and  a 
large  part  of  their  support  to  men  who  are  either 
active  church-workers  to-day,  or  who  received  their 
training  in  religious  homes  and  learned  the  lesson 
of  serving  their  fellow-men  from  godly  parents. 
Of  the  four  men  chiefly  responsible  for  the  meet¬ 
ings  herein  described,  one  is  the  son  of  a  minister, 
one  a  ministerial  educator  now  having  large  busi¬ 
ness  interests,  one  an  active  Presbyterian  pastor, 
and  one  a  Baptist  deacon. 

Let  us  turn  first  to  that  one  of  our  group  of 
meetings  which  most  closely  resembles  the  usual 
evening  church  service  with  just  enough  difference 
to  make  it  an  entirely  new  thing  in  its  appeal  to  the 
floating  population  in  the  downtown  district  of  one 
of  our  great  cosmopolitan  centers. 

I.  The  way  Chicago  does  it. 

Chicago’s  Sunday  Evening  Club  is  the  way  they 
style  it  in  the  breezy  city  by  the  great  lake.  Or- 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church  7 

chestra  Hall  will  seat  two  thousand  five  hundred, 
and  the  Sunday  Evening  Club  fills  it,  often  to  over¬ 
flowing,  from  October  to  July.  The  appeal  is  to 
hordes  of  traveling  salesmen  and  other  floating 
hotel  guests,  and  to  large  numbers  of  clerks  and 
stenographers  in  near-by  boarding-houses,  and  the 
plan  is  to  give  them  the  best  that  money  can  buy  in 
attractive  accommodations,  inspiring  music,  and 
powerful  addresses  by  men  of  national  reputation, 
without  prejudice  to  creed,  and  with  high  recogni¬ 
tion  of  the  message  of  a  man  who  has  done  some¬ 
thing  for  the  welfare  of  his  fellow-men. 

A  needy  district. 

Here  is  what  is  familiarly  known  as  “  the  loop,”  a 
large  district  including  the  greatest  area  for  mam¬ 
moth  retail  business  in  this  country,  a  territory 
crowded  with  big  hotels  and  great  business  struc¬ 
tures,  with  a  large  population  in  its  immediate 
vicinity  of  people  away  from  their  homes — here  in 
this  mammonized  center  the  regular  church  evening 
service  had  been  practically  crowded  to  the  wall, 
leaving  a  great  company  of  floaters  with  little  to 
choose  between  a  Sunday  theater,  a  hotel  lobby, 
or  a  stuffy  six-by-ten  boarding-house  room. 

The  brilliantly  lighted  auditorium,  with  its 
comfortable  seats,  uplifting  music  in  which  all  may 
have  a  share,  and  a  thrilling  message  from  some 
great  captain  of  men  pointing  to  the  better  things 
of  life  and  setting  forth  with  broad  sympathy  and 


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wise  understanding  the  fundamentals  of  religion, 
could  hardly  fail  to  satisfy  hungry  and  ofttimes 
lonely  souls.  The  character  of  the  service  too, 
consisting  of  Scripture,  prayer,  and  congregational 
singing,  in  every  way  distinctly  Christian,  is  doubt¬ 
less  what  the  majority  of  these  people  have  been 
used  to  in  their  own  home  surroundings.  Moreover, 
they  find  the  atmosphere  of  the  great  gathering 
not  only  friendly  and  homelike,  but  stimulative  of 
their  best  selves  and  a  source  of  inner  strength  for 
the  week’s  tasks  that  lie  ahead  of  them.  This  work 
has  been  of  such  power  and  magnitude  as  to 
command  the  service  as  speakers  of  many  dis¬ 
tinguished  men.  Such  men  as  the  following  have 
spoken  from  the  platform:  Governor  Hughes,  of 
New  York;  Governor  Marshall,  of  Indiana;  Sen¬ 
ator  Beveridge,  of  Indiana ;  Senator  Gore,  of  Okla¬ 
homa;  Presidents  Schurman,  of  Cornell  University  5 
Jordan,  of  Leland  Stanford  University;  Wheeler, 
of  the  University  of  California;  Bryan,  Franklin 
College,  Indiana  (now  of  Colgate)  ;  Andrews,  of 
the  University  of  Nebraska;  Dr.  Newell  Dwight 
Hillis,  Sir  Wilfred  T.  Grenfell,  Dr.  Francis  G.  Pea¬ 
body,  and  John  Temple  Graves. 

Backed  by  big  business. 

But  here,  perhaps,  is  the  most  uniquely  interest¬ 
ing  feature  of  this  most  helpful  institution.  The 
burden  of  expense,  about  fifteen  thousand  dollars 
a  year,  and  the  responsibility  for  its  management. 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church 


9 


lie  in  the  hands  of  some  of  the  greatest  business  men 
of  Chicago,  many  of  whom  are  not  specifically  con¬ 
nected  with  any  particular  form  of  church  work. 
They  are  men  who  are  used  to  doing  business  on  a 
vast  scale,  and  so,  when  they  give  themselves,  as 
they  have  done,  wholeheartedly  to  this  movement, 
they  insist  on  the  best  of  everything  for  the  service 
they  are  trying  to  render. 

The  leader  is  Mr.  Clifford  W.  Barnes,  formerly 
president  of  Illinois  College,  and  now  engaged  in 
managing  large  business  interests  in  Chicago.  With 
his  training  in  the  ministry  on  the  one  side,  and  his 
contact  with  the  leading  business  men  of  Chicago 
on  the  other,  he  was  just  the  man  both  to  conceive 
this  novel  gathering  and  to  put  it  through  to  a  suc¬ 
cessful  issue. 

In  these  few  paragraphs  it  has  not  been  the  in¬ 
tention  to  give  a  rounded  picture  of  the  Chicago 
Sunday  Evening  Club,  but  just  to  whet  one’s  appe¬ 
tite  and  to  send  him  to  headquarters  for  a  full 
account  of  the  movement. 

II.  Rochester’s  experiment ;  led  hy  three  ministers. 

Next  in  geographical  order,  as  we  turn  eastward, 
as  well  as  next  in  the  natural  order  of  development, 
let  us  make  a  careful  scrutiny  of  the  “  People’s  Sun¬ 
day  Evening,”  an  audience  which  meets  every  week 
in  the  National  Theater,  Rochester’s  largest  play¬ 
house,  with  seating  accommodations  for  two  thou¬ 
sand.  Here  we  find  an  active  pastor  of  a  rich,  up- 


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town,  aristocratic  church  in  charge,  with  a  sem¬ 
inary  professor  a  close  second,  and  a  minister  at 
large  in  the  city  backing  up  the  other  two. 

But  Rev.  Paul  Moore  Strayer  is  not  only  the  suc¬ 
cessful  pastor  of  the  splendid  Third  Presbyterian 
Church,  he  is  also  the  regularly  appointed  delegate 
of  the  Ministerial  Association  to  the  central  council 
of  the  trades  unions  of  Rochester,  and  is  generally 
regarded  throughout  the  city  as  a  warm  friend  of 
the  working  man.  Prof.  Walter  Rauschenbusch  is 
not  only  a  much-beloved  professor  in  the  Baptist 
theological  seminary  of  the  city,  but  also  the  widely 
known  author  of  “  Christianity  and  the  Social 
Crisis,”  a  book  that  is  very  much  read  to-day  by 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  serious-minded  men. 
Rev.  Dr.  Henry  H.  Stebbins,  a  man  of  great  dili¬ 
gence  in  all  manner  of  good  works,  is  the  third 
in  this  group  of  ministers  who  are  trying  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  time  with  methods  adapted 
thereto. 

Leading  citizens  co-operating. 

Associated  with  these  leaders  on  the  board  of 
management  are  a  number  of  the  representative 
men  of  the  city,  including  a  successful  manufac¬ 
turer,  the  business  agent  of  a  labor  union,  the  gen¬ 
eral  manager  of  one  of  the  leading  industries  of 
the  city,  the  editor  of  a  labor  journal,  two  well- 
known  physicians,  leading  officers  in  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  the  president  of  the  Central  Labor 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church  /  / 

Union,  the  editor  of  one  of  the  daily  newspapers, 
and  others  of  like  standing. 

Mr.  Strayer’s  church  co-operates  heartily.  Not 
only  does  it  release  its  pastor  for  this  series  of 
twenty  consecutive  Sunday  evening  meetings,  but 
it  also  gives  the  use  of  its  quartette,  and  through 
the  contributions  of  its  members,  provides  about 
one-third  of  the  expenses.  The  meeting  itself, 
through  voluntary  collections,  raises  an  average  of 
forty  dollars  a  meeting,  the  total  expense  being 
about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars  a  night. 
The  only  salary  is  for  a  secretary,  who  is  paid 
for  half  of  her  time,  but  gives  it  all. 

Theatrical  accompaniments. 

Although  prayer  and  Scripture  and  hymn-sing¬ 
ing  characterize  the  service,  it  has  also  many  of 
the  accompaniments  of  the  theater.  The  orchestra 
plays  for  half  an  hour,  the  curtain  rises,  and  there 
is  a  constant  element  of  surprise  as  to  what  is  going 
to  be  done  next,  and  how  it  will  be  done.  Applause 
is  always  in  order. 

Union  labor,  both  individually  and  officially,  has 
taken  a  lively  interest  in  these  meetings  from  their 
inception,  and  in  some  cases  trade  unions  have 
voted  from  their  treasuries  sums  of  money  to 
assist  in  carrying  on  the  work. 

The  topics  discussed  by  a  widely  varying  list  of 
speakers,  including  both  laymen  and  clergymen, 
deal  with  matters  civic  and  social,  as  well  as 


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religious.  Such  subjects  as  Socialism,  Organized 
Labor,  The  Health  of  the  City,  Prayer,  Education, 
Playgrounds,  indicate  the  range  of  interest  covered. 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that  this  movement  in  Roches¬ 
ter,  led  by  three  evangelical  ministers,  is  entirely 
outside  of  the  church  in  its  habitation,  its  style, 
and  largely  such  in  its  membership ;  yet  it  never 
would  have  existed  nor  could  continue  without  the 
aid  of  those  who  draw  their  strength  from  the 
church  and  from  that  for  which  the  church  stands. 

A  pronounced  success. 

What  was  begun  as  an  experiment  by  a  few  bold 
spirits  who  had  seen  the  vision,  is  now  so  signally 
successful  that  the  ministers  of  the  city,  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  advisory  committee,  and  the  people 
themselves  are  unanimous  in  their  decision  to  con¬ 
tinue  and  enlarge  the  work. 

Professor  Rauschenbusch  says  that  it  was 
thought  at  the  beginning  that  the  audiences  would 
want  attractions,”  features  in  which  pleasant  en¬ 
tertainment  would  be  furnished,  but  they  found,  on 
the  contrary,  that  the  people  were  most  profoundly 
interested  in  strong,  vital,  earnest  discussions  that 
got  at  the  marrow  of  the  solid  questions  of  life. 
He  further  says : 

‘‘  Fully  half  of  our  meetings  were  devoted  to 
discussions  of  social  questions,  but  in  discussing 
these,  we  did  not  feel  in  the  least  that  we  were 
leaving  religion  and  turning  to  secular  things. 


The.  Churches  Outside  the  Church 


13 


“  Great  moral  perspectives  were  opened  by  them, 
and  deep  religious  emotions  were  stirred  by  them. 
To  discuss  such  questions  from  the  point  of  view 
of  religion,  to  deal  with  them  as  part  of  the  king¬ 
dom  of  God  on  earth,  is  part  and  parcel  of  the 
religion  for  which  the  ‘  People’s  Sunday  Evening  ’ 
has  stood  in  all  that  it  has  done.” 

III.  In  New  York,  a  church  with  many  unbelievers. 

Continuing  on  our  eastward  path,  we  come  to 
New  York  City,  where  we  find  the  oldest  and  most 
ultra  of  the  four  institutions  that  have  engaged  our 
attention.  Here,  indeed,  is  an  affair  that  might, 
with  a  considerable  degree  of  accuracy,  be  char¬ 
acterized  as  “  a  church  outside  of  the  churches,” 
though  this  would  be  quickly  challenged  by  those 
who  could  not  conceive  of  anything  being  religious 
that  was  entirely  without  any  form  of  service,  save 
that  of  music,  and  which  included  among  its  de¬ 
votees  many  so-called  agnostics,  and  even  would-be 
atheists.  I  use  the  qualification  “  would-be  ”  not 
in  derision,  but  because  in  the  last  analysis  I  can¬ 
not  believe  that  any  man  in  the  depths  of  his  heart 
actually  casts  out  all  hope  of  a  God.  He  may  not 
be  able  to  figure  it  out  intellectually,  he  may  indeed 
argue  against  it  intellectually,  and  for  the  time 
being  he  may  be  in  bitter  rebellion,  but  in  the  long 
run,  under  normal  conditions,  and  in  the  last  an¬ 
alysis  it  is,  as  the  Bible  says,  only  “  the  fool  who 
saith  in  his  heart  there  is  no  God,”  and  I  know 


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many  a  person,  willing  to  be  called  an  atheist  by 
those  who  are  not  their  betters,  who  is  neither  a 
fool  nor  an  infidel. 

A  great  spiritual  melting-pot. 

But  because  there  are  unbelievers  devoted  to 
this  “  Sunday  Evening  Meeting  at  Cooper  Union,” 
let  none  think  that  all  who  attend  there  are  in  that 
class.  Every  Sunday  night,  from  October  to  May, 
the  famous  auditorium  in  Cooper  Union,  which  will 
seat  one  thousand  six  hundred,  is  filled,  and  often 
overflowing,  with  a  motley  crowd,  to  which  this 
meeting  is  as  much  of  a  blessing  and  uplift  as  a 
.  church  service  would  be  to  us.  Among  the  com¬ 
pany  will  be  found  almost  every  variety  of  type 
from  the  East  Side,  with  a  sprinkling  of  those  from 
the  middle  and  upper  classes.  They  represent  every 
degree  in  the  social  scale,  from  the  well-to-do,  who 
are  interested  in  people's  .movements,  to  the  pros¬ 
perous,  self-respecting  clerk,  or  mechanic,  and  on 
down  to  the  ‘‘  hard-up,”  out  of  a  job  and  pretty 
much  out  of  clothing  as  well.  The  men  outnumber 
the  women,  perhaps  ten  to  one,  and  appearance 
would  lead  one  to  judge  that  the  Jewish  element 
preponderated  over  any  other.  The  audience  too 
is  manifestly  of  the  younger  generation. 

Sunday  after  Sunday,  no  matter  what  the 
weather,  regardless  almost  of  the  topic  or  the 
speaker,  for  more  than  twelve  years  now,  this  sig¬ 
nificant  gathering  of  the  plain  people  for  a  meeting 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church  /  5 

of  their  own  has  continued  with  undiminished 
success. 

Only  a  part  of  the  whole. 

But  it  should  be  said  at  once  that  this  Sunday 
evening  meeting  is  but  a  small  part  (the  church 
part,  as  they  like  to  regard  it  themselves),  of  a 
great  work  carried  on  all  through  the  week  by 
The  People’s  Institute,  of  which  Prof.  Charles 
Sprague  Smith  is  the  directing  head.  The  Institute 
takes  a  direct  and  influential  part  in  the  political  and 
economic  affairs  of  the  city  and  State,  always  turn¬ 
ing  its  strength  to  the  side  of  justice  and  decent 
administration.  Its  influence  has  been  of  no  un¬ 
certain  value  in  supporting  Governor  Hughes  in 
several  of  his  hard-fought  campaigns. 

Its  character  and  scope. 

This  Sunday  evening  meeting  is  opened  with  a 
half-hour  of  music,  instrumental  and  vocal,  with 
specially  selected  hymns  sung  by  the  entire  congre¬ 
gation.  Sometimes  one  of  the  up-town  churches 
lends  its  quartette,  and  it  is  greatly  appreciated. 
After  a  lecture,  lasting  about  an  hour,  the  great 
audience  is  given  an  opportunity  to  ask  the  speaker 
questions.  And  they  never  fail  to  avail  themselves 
of  the  opportunity. 

Here,  again,  the  subjects  considered  are  all  of  the 
most  serious  character.  You  would  search  far  and 
wide  among  the  churches  of  a  Sunday  evening  to 


16 


Social  Service  Series 


find  any  more  dead-in-earnest  set  of  people  than 
these  you  find  gathered  at  Cooper  Union.  There  is 
absolutely  nothing  planned  simply  to  entertain,  ex¬ 
cept  as  the  miusic  delights  and  charms. 

A  mere  list  of  speakers  and  topics,  drawn  at 
random  from  a  few  programmes  that  lie  at  hand, 
will  suffice  to  give  a  fairly  accurate  idea  of  the 
trend  and  scope  of  these  meetings  : 

“  The  People’s  Church,”  Rev.  Thomas  R.  Sheer. 

“  Religion  and  Conduct,”  Rev.  Thomas  C.  Hall, 
D.  D. 

“  The  Wages  Question,”  Hon.  Carroll  D.  Wright. 

“The  True  Elements  of  National  Greatness,” 
Pres.  J.  G.  Schurman. 

“  The  Religion  of  an  Educated  Man,”  Dr. 
Maurice  H.  Harris. 

“  The  Relation  of  Machinery  to  Modern  Life,” 
Mr.  Gerald  Stanley  Lee. 

“  How  We  Should  Think  of  God,”  Rev.  Lyman 
Abbott,  D.  D. 

“  Moral  Perplexities  of  a  Transitional  Age,” 
Dean  Shailer  Mathews. 

“  Justice,”  Prof.  Charles  Zueblin. 

“  Social  Service,”  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  D.  D. 

“  The  Sunny  and  Seamy  Side  of  Salvation  Army 
Work,”  Com.  Erederick  Booth  Tucker. 

“  The  Attitude  of  Judaism  Toward  Other  Re¬ 
ligions,”  Dr.  Rudolph  Grossman. 

“  Moral  Responsibility  for  One’s  Opinions  and 
Their  Expression,”  Mr.  Mornay  Williams. 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church 


17 


Appeals  to  all  hearts. 

Such  is  the  moral  and  spiritual  appeal  these 
meetings  make  to  all  classes  irrespective  of  creed 
that  I  have  found  myself,  a  dyed-in-the-wool  ortho¬ 
dox  man  of  the  church,  sitting  alongside  of  Jews 
and  unbelievers,  all  of  us  alike  thrilled  and  uplifted 
by  the  appeal  that  was  being  made  to  our  higher 
and  better  selves.  Although  I  am  a  lover  of  great 
preaching,  and  know  where  I  can  get  it  in  New 
York,  I,  nevertheless,  for  my  own  spiritual  ad¬ 
vantage  prefer  invariably  to  go  of  a  Sunday  eve¬ 
ning  to  this  meeting  of  the  plain  people  in  Cooper 
Union. 

The  leader  and  his  supporters. 

But  this  great  work  is  too  well  known,  and  has 
been  too  long  established,  for  me  to  dwell  further 
upon  the  details.  My  brief  account  will  suffice  to 
give  a  suggestion  of  its  character  and  a  hint  as  to 
its  power.  Prof.  Charles  Sprague  Smith,  formerly 
of  the  faculty  of  Columbia  University,  originated 
it,  and  has  carried  it  on  through  all  these  years. 
Although  the  son  of  a  Congregational  minister,  I 
do  not  think  he  is  now  active  in  distinctive  church 
circles,  though  he  enjoys  the  confidence  of  all  classes 
of  men  and  women  throughout  the  city. 

Some  of  the  foremost  contributors  supporting 
the  work  of  the  People’s  Institute — the  budget,  in¬ 
cluding  all  the  varied  departments,  requiring  about 


18 


Social  Service  Series 


twenty  thousand  dollars  a  year — have  been,  and  still 
are,  the  strong  men  of  the  churches.  In  some  cases 
they  have  been  unwilling  to  allow  the  use  of  their 
names,  and  even  after  a  contributor’s  death  the 
family  has  not  cared  to  let  the  connection  be  known. 
But  one  multimillionaire,  who  is  frequently  bitterly 
criticized  in  their  open  forums,  continues  his  large 
contributions  from  year  to  year,  being  afraid 
neither  of  being  misunderstood  by  his  friends  in  the 
church,  nor  by  his  enemies  outside. 

Thus  we  see  that  even  this  institution,  so  com¬ 
pletely  outside  of  the  church,  is  led  by  a  Christian 
man,  the  son  of  a  minister,  and  is  supported  to  a 
large  degree  by  Christian  people. 

IV.  Boston’s  method  still  different. 

And  now,  having  traveled  about  as  far  east  as 
we  can  in  this  country,  we  stop  at  Boston  to  learn 
something  of  the  fourth  enterprise  in  our  series, 
which  is  perhaps  the  most  interesting  of  all,  inas¬ 
much  as  it  might  be  loosely  styled,  a  church  outside 
the  churches  supported  and  run  by  the  church. 
This  work  in  Boston  is  more  like  that  at  the  Cooper 
Union  than  either  the  meeting  in  Chicago  or  the 
one  in  Rochester,  and  yet  it  is  the  farthest  re¬ 
moved,  not  only  from  the  New  York  work,  but  also 
from  the  other  two,  because  it  is  in  its  inception, 
its  management,  and  its  support,  wholly  a  denom¬ 
inational  affair.  Whereas,  in  Chicago  and  Roches¬ 
ter,  men  of  various  churches  and  of  no  particular 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church  /  9 

church,  are  the  mainspring  in  the  work,  and  in  New 
York  the  whole  movement  is  quite  sharply  disas¬ 
sociated  from  any  church,  here,  in  Boston,  the 
Baptist  church  is  literally  the  whole  thing,  so  far 
as  the  management,  the  support,  and  the  place  of 
meeting  are  concerned. 

A  Baptist  affair. 

These  Sunday  evening  gatherings  in  Boston 
have  come  to  be  known  throughout  the  city  as  the 
Ford  Hall  Meetings.  Three  times  now  in  succes¬ 
sive  years  the  Committee  on  Christian  Work  and 
the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Boston  Baptist 
Social  Union  have  voted  to  provide  the  management 
and  the  funds,  and  have  given  the  use  of  their 
beautiful  hall  for  this  series  of  popular  Sunday 
evening  meetings,  running,  as  they  do  now,  from 
the  first  of  November  to  the  first  of  April. 

It  all  came  about  in  this  way.  Mr.  Daniel  Sharp 
Ford,  late  owner  of  “  The  Youth’s  Companion  ”  and 
first  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Christian  Work 
of  the  Boston  Baptist  Social  Union,  at  his  death 
(Dec.  24,  1899)  bequeathed  to  the  Social  Union 
about  a  million  dollars  for  use  in  erecting  a  beauti¬ 
ful  club-house  for  their  monthly  meetings,  and  as 
an  endowment  fund  for  the  temporal,  moral,  and 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  working  men  and  women 
of  Boston. 

The  beautiful  auditorium,  named  Ford  Hall,  in 
this  new  home  of  the  Social  Union,  situated  on  the 


20 


Social  Service  Series 


crown  of  Beacon  Hill,  on  whose  northward  and 
westward  down-slopes  live  myriads  of  the  working 
people  of  Boston,  not  being  in  use  at  any  time  on 
Sunday,  seemed  to  offer  a  natural  opportunity  for 
an  experiment  in  the  direction  of  Mr.  Ford’s  special 
wishes. 

Based  on  Cooper  Union’s  idea. 

At  the  time  this  move  was  being  contemplated,  a 
great  inspiration  had  been  received  from  a  number 
of  visits  to  Cooper  Union,  Sunday  evenings.  The 
movements  in  Chicago  and  Rochester  had  not  yet 
been  born.  Naturally  the  all-inclusive  standards  of 
Cooper  Union  were  set  up  for  the  meetings  at  Ford 
Hall,  and  pledges  were  given  that  there  would 
nothing  go  forth  from  our  platform  intentionally 
offensive  to  race,  class,  or  creed,  and  that  every  one 
was  welcome  except  church  folks. 

With  Tremont  Temple,  and  its  great  evangelical 
evening  service,  only  two  or  three  blocks  away,  and 
numerous  other  churches  of  various  denominations 
all  around  us,  we  naturally  could  not,  in  Christian 
fairness,  set  up  a  rival  meeting  nor,  indeed,  under¬ 
take  at  all  any  usual  form  of  church  work. 

Natural  outgrowth  of  circumstances. 

Here  was  an  inspiration  to  do  a  work  quite  dif¬ 
ferent  from  that  undertaken  by  the  churches,  and 
therefore  not  at  all  competing  with  them.  Here  was 
a  beautiful  hall  quite  unused,  and  here  were  great 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church  21 

crowds  outside  of  the  churches.  All  these  consider¬ 
ations  provided  the  very  unusual  circumstances  out 
of  which  has  sprung  a  very  unique  and  most  hope¬ 
ful  experiment. 

It  has  been  the  aim  from  the  beginning  to  pro¬ 
vide  a  service  that  would  uplift  the  souls  of  every¬ 
day  men  and  women  through  means  that  would  not 
introduce  divisive  questions.  Many  kinds  of  ques¬ 
tions  on  which  men  may  disagree  are  frankly  dis¬ 
cussed  from  this  platform,  but  nothing  sectarian  in 
politics,  religion,  or  economics  is  set  forth  as  the 
prepossession  of  the  platform.  Whereas  no  topic 
is  taken  up  simply  as  a  bread  and  butter  question, 
or  merely  for  instruction  or  entertainment,  any  topic 
that  has  a  moral  and  spiritual  side  to  it  and  that 
can  be  discussed  before  a  heterogeneous  crowd 
without  engendering  personal  feeling  is  most  wel¬ 
come. 

Entertainment  not  necessary. 

Never  once  as  yet  has  even  a  stereopticon  been 
used,  nor  is  any  other  like  means  resorted  to  for 
the  purpose  of  making  the  address  more  enter¬ 
taining  and  attractive.  It  seems  to  be  entirely  un¬ 
necessary.  These  people  will  sit  through  an  hour’s 
lecture  requiring  the  utmost  attention,  and  will 
then  stay  on  eagerly  for  another  half-hour  or  an 
hour  while  the  speaker  undergoes  a  sharp  but  per¬ 
fectly  respectful  and  good-natured  cross-exami¬ 
nation. 


22 


Social  Service  Series 


In  the  half-hour’s  concert  which  precedes  the  ad¬ 
dress  an  attempt  is  made  to  give  the  people  really 
good  music,  and  it  is  no  easy  task  with  an  extremely 
limited  appropriation,  for  many  of  these  people  are 
from  music-loving  countries  and  they  know  the  best 
by  very  instinct. 

T opics  and  speakers. 

Except  in  details,  the  topics  and  speakers  vary 
little  in  scope  and  character  from  those  that  are 
used  in  the  meetings  at  Cooper  Union  and  in 
Rochester.  The  following  partial  list  will  give  a 
very  good  general  idea  of  the  programmes : 

“  The  Brotherhood  of  Man,”  Prof.  Charles 
Sprague  Smith. 

‘‘  What  the  Jew  has  done  for  the  World  and 
What  the  World  Has  Done  to  the  Jew,”  Rabbi 
Samuel  Schulman,  D.  D. 

“  The  Democratic  Gospel,”  Rev.  Leighton  Wil¬ 
liams,  D.  D. 

“  The  Relation  of  Modern  Christian  Life  to  the 
Social  Problem,”  Rev.  Thos.  C.  Hall,  D.  D. 

‘‘  Tolstoy’s  Story  of  a  Soul’s  Resurrection,”  Prof. 
William  Salter. 

Socialism  As  I  See  It,”  Rev.  O.  P.  Gifford, 
D.  D.  (Baptist),  Rev.  George  Willis  Cooke  (Uni¬ 
tarian),  Rev.  Philo  W.  Sprague  (Episcopalian), 
Rev.  Daniel  Evans,  D.  D.  (Congregationalist). 

“Are  Our  National  Standards  Ethical?”  Prof. 
Walter  Rauschenbusch,  D.  D. 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church 


23 


“  The  Tyranny  of  Majorities,”  Rabbi  Stephen  S. 
Wise,  Ph.  D. 

“  Christmas  as  a  Social  Institution,”  Rev.  Albert 
Parker  Fitch,  D.  D. 

“  Other  People’s  Graft,”  Mr.  Lincoln  Steffens. 

“  Why  the  Church  Cannot  Accept  Socialism,” 
Rev.  Charles  Stelzle. 

“  The  State  and  Morality,”  Prof.  Charles  Zueblin. 

“  Religion  and  Business,”  Dr.  Frederick  van 
Eeden. 

“  The  Church  and  the  Working  Man,”  Rev.  Alex¬ 
ander  Irvine. 

“  Has  the  Church  Failed?  ”  Right  Reverend  Wil¬ 
liam  Lawrence,  D.  D.,  Episcopal  Bishop  of  Massa¬ 
chusetts. 

‘‘  Education  Without  Schools,”  Pres.  W.  H.  P. 
Faunce,  D.  D. 

Suspicion  and  prejudice  to  overcome. 

At  the  very  first  the  meetings  were  thinly  at¬ 
tended,  notwithstanding  widely  distributed  adverti¬ 
sing  in  various  forms.  Only  one  hundred  and  fifty 
came  to  the  first  meeting.  In  fact,  the  average  at¬ 
tendance  for  the  first  series  of  six  meetings  was  only 
three  hundred  and  twenty-five.  It  seemed  difficult 
to  dispel  a  suspicion  that  some  ulterior  motive  lay 
in  the  background. 

With  the  beginning  of  the  second  series  the  next 
winter,  the  attendance  rose  rapidly  from  the  very 
start  until  at  the  fourth  meeting  every  one  of  the 


24 


Social  Service  Series 


twelve  hundred  seats  was  occupied,  two  hundred 
stood  throughout  nearly  three  hours,  and  five  hun¬ 
dred  were  turned  away.  Since  then  the  difficulty 
has  been  to  find  room  for  those  who  want  to  come. 
One  night,  when  the  city  was  literally  encased  in  a 
storm  of  frozen  sleet,  the  hall  was  packed  five 
minutes  after  the  doors  were  opened,  and  fourteen 
hundred  people  were  turned  away. 

Now,  every  Sunday  night  the  people  begin  to 
gather  outside  the  doors  at  six  o’clock,  and,  forming 
two  great  lines  two  abreast,  extend  up  and  down 
the  sidewalk  for  a  long  distance  in  both  directions, 
waiting  in  patient  and  orderly  fashion  for  the  doors 
to  open  at  seven  o’clock,  when  they  have  a  still 
further  wait  of  half  an  hour  before  the  meeting 
begins. 

All  kinds  unite  in  the  Lord’s  Prayer. 

At  first  there  was  no  devotional  service  at  all, 
but  during  the  latter  part  of  last  year’s  series 
prayer  was  ofifered  at  the  opening  of  the  meeting, 
and  on  Easter  Sunday  night,  preceding  an  address 
on  The  Religion  of  the  Crowd,”  the  whole  com¬ 
pany  was  asked  to  join  in  repeating  together  the 
Lord’s  Prayer. 

People  who  owe  an  obligation  to  any  other  Sun¬ 
day  evening  service  are  warned  to  keep  away  from 
Ford  Hall,  with  the  result  that  the  congregation  is 
made  up  almost  exclusively  of  people  who  do  not,  as 
a  rule,  go  to  church.  Among  them  is  a  very  con- 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church  25 

siderable  proportion  of  young  Jewish  men  and 
women  who  have  largely  broken  away  from  the 
synagogue  and  many  of  whom  are  agnostics. 

Hits  high  and  low. 

It  has  been  most  remarkable  to  note  how  a  meet¬ 
ing  that  was  planned  particularly  for  the  working 
class  appeals  alike  to  men  and  women  of  all  classes, 
from  the  unskilled  laborer,  the  clerk,  and  the  me¬ 
chanic  to  the  prosperous  business  man,  the  woman 
of  leisure,  and  the  teacher  and  professor.  A  recent 
questionaire  brought  forth  the  fact  that  forty  per 
cent,  of  the  company  are  trade  workers,  mostly 
members  of  trade  unions,  thirty  per  cent,  are  clerks 
and  salespeople,  and  nearly  fifteen  per  cent,  are  pro¬ 
fessional  folk  and  students. 

Spiritual  results. 

Abundant  evidence  of  a  most  direct  nature  is  at 
hand,  testifying  to  transformed  lives,  uplifted 
hearts,  and  renewed  hopes  as  the  result  of  these 
meetings.  Scores  of  letters  have  been  received 
testifying  to  that  effect.  The  public  press  and  the 
religious  papers  have  been  of  the  utmost  assistance 
in  drawing  in  the  people  and  in  explaining  the 
movement  to  church  folks.  Boston  already  feels 
that  the  meetings  have  become  one  of  the  institu¬ 
tions  of  the  city.  A  group  of  public-spirited  citi¬ 
zens,  representing  leading  interests  in  the  city,  have 
from  the  beginning  allowed  the  use  of  their  names 


26 


Social  Service  Series 


and  been  generous  with  their  counsel  as  members 
of  a  general  citizens’  committee. 

Such  a  deep-seated  want  has  been  satisfied  by 
these  meetings  that  it  is  felt  in  many  quarters  that 
they  would  have  to  go  on — in  fact,  that  they  could 
not  now  be  stopped,  even  if  a  change  of  base  for 
any  reason  should  become  necessary. 

Winning  friends  for  the  Baptists. 

Although  the  Ford  Hall  Meetings  have  been  well 
worth  while  in  the  happiness  and  profit  they  have 
brought  to  thousands  who  had  no  other  place  save 
a  theater  to  go  of  a  Sunday  evening;  and  although 
they  have  already  done  much  in  softening  the  atti¬ 
tude  of  hundreds  who  have  been  ill  disposed  toward 
the  church ;  and  although  they  have  done  a  great 
work  in  giving  the  community  at  large  a  fresh  con¬ 
ception  of  the  liberty  and  toleration  for  which  Bap¬ 
tists  have  always  stood;  nevertheless,  not  the  least 
service  they  have  rendered  by  any  means  has  been 
to  bring  to  church  people  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
great  need  there  is  to-day  of  preaching  a  whole  gos¬ 
pel,  including  the  gospel  that  aims  to  save  society 
as  well  as  the  gospel  that  aims  to  save  the  individual. 

It  is  a  fair  question  whether  the  reflex  action  of 
these  meetings  will  not  mean  as  much  in  the  stirring 
of  a  new  life  within  the  church  as  the  meetings 
themselves  have  in  giving  spiritual  refreshment 
and  strength  to  a  great  body  of  sheep  without  a 
shepherd. 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church 


27 


What  Saith  the  Church? 

Although  I  have  singled  out  for  special  mention 
the  four  Sunday  evening  gatherings  of  the  com¬ 
mon  people  outside  of  the  churches  with  which  I 
am  most  familiar,  it  should  be  understood  that  these 
are  only  examples  of  many  similar  gatherings 
springing  up  here  and  there  all  over  the  country. 
And  while  there  seem  to  be  no  two  alike,  which  is 
significant  of  their  spontaneity,  they  all  show  forth 
most  clearly  a  great  need  and  the  feasibility  of  satis¬ 
fying  it. 

The  question  that  concerns  the  church  at  this 
juncture  is  this:  Will  she  let  still  another  of  her 
functions  slip  into  other  and  less  well  qualified 
hands  ? 

The  church  has  largely  lost  to  the  public  school 
her  functions  as  instructor  of  youth.  She  has  given 
over  to  numerous  organizations  her  natural  lead¬ 
ership  in  temperance  reform.  She  has  relegated  to 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  the  care  of 
the  homeless  youths  in  our  great  urban  centers. 
She  has  yielded  to  various  charity  organizations 
very  much  of  the  care  of  the  poor  and  needy.  She 
has  left  to  the  labor  organizations  the  fight  for 
just  wages,  fair  hours,  and  against  child  labor;  she 
is  leaving  to  the  radicals  in  economic  reforms  the 
dream  of  bringing  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on 
earth. 

Will  she  now  turn  to  the  sheep  without  the  fold 


28 


Social  Service  Series 


and  give  them  a  whole  gospel,  or  leave  them  in  the 
hands  of  the  stranger  to  get  a  halfdoaf  or  none  at 
all,  according  as  chance  may  determine?  Has  she 
herself  been  using  the  whole  gospel  or  just  resting 
satisfied  with  the  so-called  simple  gospel?  Nothing 
less  than  the  whole  gospel  is  big  enough  for  this 
great  age  in  which  we  live. 

A  too  narrow  interpretation  of  the  simple  gospel 
to  the  neglect  of  a  more  ample  unfolding  of  the 
whole  gospel  may  be  responsible  in  large  part  for 
the  increase  of  the  flock  that  is  outside  of  the  fold. 
It  is  certainly  emphatically  true  that  thousands  who 
are  unwilling  to  listen  to  a  gospel  of  the  future  life 
embedded  in  terms  of  sectarianism,  are  hungering 
and  thirsting  mightily  for  a  gospel  of  righteousness 
for  this  present  life.  They  will  respond  magnifi¬ 
cently  to  a  gospel  of  justice,  truth,  mercy,  and  love 
that  is  applied  without  respect  of  persons  and  yet 
remain  not  only  uninterested,  but  impatient  with 
what  we  call  the  simple  gospel. 

Here,  undoubtedly,  is  a  great  new  avenue  of  serv¬ 
ice  opening  up  before  this  generation.  We  have 
seen  that  the  need  has  been  promptly  felt  and  man¬ 
fully  met  by  men  who  represent  the  church  or  have 
been  trained  in  the  church,  just  as  was  the  case 
in  all  these  other  movements  that  have  so  depleted 
the  serviceability  of  the  church  as  an  organization; 
but  in  only  one  instance  out  of  the  four  that  we 
have  considered  has  the  work  been  projected  and 
entirely  supported  from  a  distinctively  church  base. 


The  Churches  Outside  the  Church 


29 


Having  made  a  start,  shall  we  go  on  and  encour¬ 
age  others  to  follow  in  our  footsteps?  Or  shall  we 
shirk  the  difficulties  and  dangers  that  are  certainly 
involved  and  cuddle  down  in  our  church  nests  to 
look  after  our  own  birdlings  as  best  we  may  while 
waiting  to  see  what  will  happen  to  “  that  wicked 
world  without,  which  is  so  bent  on  hurling  itself 
to  destruction  ?  ” 


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/'  ■.:''a7.; 


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